How the James Comey Hearing Gave This Washington, D.C., Bar a Brilliant Marketing Idea

Shaw’s Tavern is showing how local marketing can be as easy as following the news–in this case, the James Comey hearing–and having a little bit of fun with it. This post originally appeared on Inc.com.

CREDIT: Flickr/Creative Commons

On Thursday morning, former FBI director James Comey will testify in front of the Senate intelligence committee about his dealings with Donald Trump before the president fired him last month. There’s enormous buzz around the hearing all over the country, but especially in the nation’s capital–and in an inspired bit of local marketing, Washington, D.C., watering hole Shaw’s Tavern is taking full advantage.

Shaw’s general manager, Rob Heim, has created a public Facebook event for Thursday called “The Comey Hearing Covfefe,” for which the tavern will open at 9:30 a.m. and offer a themed menu: $5 Russian vodka drinks, FBI sandwiches (fried chicken breast, bacon, and iceberg lettuce), and FBI breakfasts (French toast, bacon, and ice cream).

In the days since it was posted on the social network, the event has taken off and even appears to have inspired copycats. More than 600 people have indicated they are going to the event–far more than the 120-seat tavern can hold–and thousands have marked that they are “interested.” At least four other D.C. bars are planning on opening early to broadcast the hearing–and at least one is giving away free drinks every time Trump tweets about the hearing:

Heim says the idea struck him last weekend while he was on vacation in Florida. A friend texted him asking if he wanted to have a couple of drinks while watching the hearing. “I can’t. I have to work,” Heim responded, before realizing he could do both at once.

“I Googled it real quickly just to see if anyone else was showing it, and when they weren’t, I was like, ‘Oh, maybe this will be a bust,'” he says. “But it turned out the opposite.”